A well-thought and comprehensive estate plan is one of the best gifts you can leave to your family.
As holistic financial planners, F5 Financial accounts for everything that impacts your financial life, including your estate plan and intentions for your legacy. When managing your financial plan, we work with you to determine what’s important to you, how to safekeep money for your loved ones, and strategies you should discuss with your estate lawyer. We help you navigate insurance, plans for long-term care, and tax mitigation, all of which will have an impact on the final value of your estate.
Benefits of our Estate & Legacy Planning
F5 Financial’s Approach to Estate and Legacy Planning
F5 Financial takes a systematic approach to estate and legacy planning to ensure everything is in place long before you’re gone. You will need an attorney to draw up the legal documentation required for these steps, but F5 Financial will guide you toward what you need and manage it for you when you’re gone. As part of our process, we walk you through the following:
Last Will & Testament
This document describes how you’d like to have your estate handled after your death, and who you want to settle it. Your will is also where you’ll designate guardianship for your children or anyone else for whom you’re legally responsible.
Revocable Living Trusts
Many people believe trusts only exist to protect assets from taxation, but a trust further defines your intentions after your death and makes it easier for family to access your assets, without probate court. A revocable trust can be amended at any time and, provided you named a successor trustee, there are no assets to transfer as “inheritance.” As a matter of transparency: establishing a trust is more expensive than creating a simple will…but it will cost far less than probating that will.
Durable Powers of Attorney
Power of attorney allows someone else to act in your behalf in case you become incapacitated. That person may have financial power of attorney, which allows them to make decisions about your finances or their power of attorney may be limited to your health care and advance directives, advocating for you regarding important medical decisions you might not be able to make yourself, as well as making end-of-life decisions on your behalf.
Living Wills
Your living will outlines exactly how you want end-of-life care to be handled, especially what measures should be taken to prolong your life and what medical treatments are or are not acceptable.
Digital Assets Management
In the age of the internet, your social media accounts may long outlive you. Keeping a list of these assets and using a password management system will allow your loved ones to take over the management of these accounts, or shut them down, if you become incapacitated.
Business Succession Plans & Buy/Sell Arrangements
If you own or operate a business, it’s crucial to designate who you want to run your business or whether you want your heirs to sell it. We will work with both your lawyer and your tax accountant to make the transition of your business both seamless and worry-free, so that your family can avoid protracted negotiations while their emotions are still raw from their loss.
Ready to Build Your Estate Plan?
Contact us to speak with a fee-only financial planner about estate and legacy planning.
Estate & Legacy Planning FAQ
It’s never too soon to start thinking about your estate plan. Things happen, and the more thorough the plan you have in place, the less likely it is that your family will be left scrambling should you unexpectedly die or become suddenly incapacitated. And if you’re a business owner, run—don’t walk—to get your succession plan in place so no employees are left in the lurch.
F5 Financial can make suggestions about how to plan your estate and can help in an administrative capacity after your plans are made, but we are not legally allowed to draw up the paperwork that makes up the backbone of your estate. For that, you’ll need an attorney, which we can help you find. Once you have one, we can collaborate with them to make sure your estate plan is in good shape.
ESTATE LAWYERS WE PARTNER WITH
Nagle, Obarski & Holzhauer, P.C. (Naperville, IL)
Leslie A. Erwin, P.C. (McDonough, GA)
Paul J. Consbruck (Venice, FL)
Generally, F5 Financial is ideal for families who have a minimum of $500,000.00 in investable assets.
We can meet whenever there have been big changes in your life. We should also meet if your marital status changes, when your children become legal adults, and around other life events that may affect your overall estate.
Estate taxes vary state to state. We have specialty knowledge about the tax laws impacting residents in Illinois, Florida and Georgia, and we can help you navigate estate taxes no matter where you live.
We have five offices:
Naperville Downtown, located at:
50 South Webster Street,
Suite 350B
Naperville, IL 60540
Venice, FL, located at:
871 Venetia Bay Blvd.,
Suite 234
Venice, FL 34285
McDonough, GA, located at:
70 Macon Street
McDonough, GA 30253
F5 Financial is a fee-only fiduciary, which means we receive a flat fee as compensation for our services. We receive no commission or incentive for how we invest your portfolio, thus we have no conflicts of interest as a financial steward. See our fees page for specifics on our fee structure.
Being a fee-only financial advisor allows for maximum transparency on our investment process, and you will never encounter hidden fees when you work with us.
Curt Stowers, the Founder of F5 Financial, is a Certified Financial Planner. He is a graduate from the University of Illinois where he earned a BS, MS and PhD in Industrial Engineering.
Josh Duncan, Partner and Financial Planner with F5 Financial, is a Certified Financial Planner. He earned his BS in Computer Science from Eastern Illinois University and holds an MBA from Capella University.
We typically work with individuals or couples in the 35-years-old to 60-years-old age range, but we are open to working with all ages. Please contact us for answers on your specific situation.
You can set-up a consultation at this page here.
